For months, President Trump has promoted hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for covid-19, calling the anti-malarial drug a “game changer,” asking patients, “What do you have to lose?” — and even announcing that he was taking the drug himself in an attempt to ward off the novel coronavirus. On Monday, however, the World Health Organization announced it had temporarily halted its global trial of the drug, citing a new study that found a significantly higher risk of death among those taking hydroxychloroquine or the closely related drug chloroquine.
